Helping New York City Transit reduce signal-related delays by identifying the assets creating the greatest operational impact and focusing maintenance resources where they could deliver the most value.
JBA worked with New York City Transit’s Maintenance of Way organization to analyze thousands of equipment failures, identify recurring causes of service disruption and introduce a more targeted approach to maintenance improvement.
The work contributed to fewer significant delays, millions fewer affected passengers and substantial annual savings.
Project Description - Turning Maintenance Data Into Measurable Improvement
Operating one of the world’s largest urban transit systems requires thousands of individual assets to perform reliably every day.
Within New York City Transit, signal-related failures represented a significant source of disruption. With a large volume of maintenance data available, the challenge was determining which failures were having the greatest impact on service and where improvement efforts should be concentrated.
JBA supported the Maintenance of Way organization by applying a structured, data-driven approach to the problem.
Approximately 22,000 equipment failures were analyzed using Pareto techniques to identify the relatively small number of assets and recurring failure modes responsible for a disproportionate share of significant delays.
This allowed maintenance activity to move from broad reactive intervention toward a more focused improvement strategy.
The Challenge - Improving Reliability Across a Complex Transit Network
The scale and complexity of the New York subway system meant that simply increasing maintenance activity would not necessarily produce better service.
Failures could occur across many different signaling assets, including switches, track circuits, insulated joints and trainstops.
Resources therefore needed to be directed toward the equipment and failure modes causing the greatest operational impact.
The challenge was to turn a large amount of maintenance information into practical actions that could reduce disruption while also ensuring the new approach could be understood and consistently applied by frontline maintenance teams.
JBA's Approach
Failure & Pareto Analysis
Targeted Asset Improvement
Workforce Engagement & Training
Results & Impact - Fewer Delays. Lower Cost. Better Passenger Experience.
The programme produced substantial and measurable improvements in both reliability and operational performance, including a 40% reduction in significant delays, 20.4 million fewer riders delayed annually, an estimated $116 million in annual savings, and 691 employees trained.
These results demonstrated how detailed operational analysis, targeted engineering intervention and workforce engagement could work together to deliver significant improvements across a major transportation network.